MEDIAEVAL CHRISTIAN HYMNODY
A. D. 600-1520
When the Western Church passed into the mediaeval era of its history,
about 600 A. D., we find church song in a new and different situation.
During the ancient era of the Christian Church, it may be said that
church song was, for the most part, a song of the people of God, a
congregational song. Attempts had been made before this time, it is
true, to suppress congregational song, but they had proven more or less
unsuccessful. During the Middle Ages, however, the Church was successful
in definitely transferring church song from the people to the clergy and
a well trained clerical choir. Latin was the liturgical language of the
entire Western Church, wherefore the mediaeval church hymns were written
in that language. The Carolingian age, productive in so many respects,
also produced a number of very beautiful hymns, resembling the best
productions of the Ambrosian era of hymnody. Charlemagne was not only a
zealous promoter but also a practiser of sacred poesy. In the ninth
century Notker Balbulus of St. Gall monastery produced hymns called
Sequences, which differed in their metrical structure from the older
hymns. These Sequences had three or six lines in each verse, while the
verses of the older hymns had four lines each. In a subsequent chapter
we shall speak more fully of the Sequences and their remarkable
birthplace.
Passing over into the mediaeval Church, we find that our church hymnody
had three different sources in the time before the Reformation. One
source was the Latin church hymnody. The second source consisted of the
German songs, called Leisen. The third source was the religious
folk-song of the common people.
MEDIAEVAL LATIN HYMNS
During the second half of the Middle Ages, beginning with the eleventh
century, a number of great hymn writers arose. King Robert of France,
who died 1031 A. D., probably wrote one of the greatest hymns of the
Latin Church, namely, Veni Sancte Spiritus. Dr. S. W. Duffield claims
that this great Sequence was written by Hermannus Contractus, the
crippled monk of Reichenau, in the eleventh century.
Bernard of Cluny and Bernard of Clairvaux are two Latin hymn writers who
hold a very important place in Christian hymnody. From Bernard of Cluny
(twelfth century) comes the well known hymn, “Jerusalem the golden, with
milk and honey blest.” This hymn comes from his famous and only poem
Laus Patriae Celestis which consists of some three thousand lines of
dactylic hexameter. We quote the first stanza of another well known hymn
that comes from the same poem.
Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care;
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life, is there.
Oh, happy retribution!
Short toil, eternal rest;
For mortals, and for sinners,
A mansion with the blest.
From St. Bernard of Clairvaux we have such great hymns as “Light of the
anxious heart,” “Wide open are Thy hands,” “O Jesus, King most
wonderful,” “Jesus, the very thought of Thee,” “Jesus, Thou Joy of
loving hearts,” and “O Sacred Head, now wounded.” St. Bernard was born
in Fountaines, Burgundy, 1091. History speaks of him as highly
imaginative, great champion of the faith, great orator, great teacher,
founder and abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux, and leader
in mediaeval mysticism. He died in 1153. Luther called him “the best
monk that ever lived.” Hymns from the two Bernards can be found in any
standard modern hymn book and they are worth careful study.
Adam of St. Victor (twelfth century) is another important Latin hymnist.
He was choirmaster at the great St. Victor monastery at Paris. Trench
speaks of him as “the foremost among the sacred Latin poets of the
Middle Ages.”
Thomas of Celano, whose birthplace is unknown, was one of the first
members of the Franciscan order. In 1221 he went to Germany and remained
there for nine years; then he returned to Italy, where he died in 1255.
Thomas of Celano wrote the greatest hymn of the Latin Church—Dies Irae.
There are nineteen verses to this great Sequence, of which we quote the
first two. The translation is by Wm. J. Irons.
Day of wrath, that Day of mourning,
See fulfilled the prophet’s warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning.
O what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth.
Thomas Aquinas was born in a Neapolitan castle, Italy, about 1225. He
was a Dominican and the strongest of the scholastics, theological
professor at several universities, Doctor of Theology from Paris, also
called Doctor Angelicus. He was a prolific writer; his Summa Theologiae
is a great dogmatic work. He died in a prominent monastery at Naples in
1274. Thomas Aquinas produced a number of excellent hymns. His “Lauda,
Sion, salvatorem” is generally regarded as one of the greatest hymns of
Latin hymnody. It can be found in almost any standard hymnal, beginning
“Sion, to thy Saviour singing.”
Jacoponus (died 1306) wrote one of the greatest hymns of the Roman
Church, namely, Stabat Mater Dolorosa. This hymn is found in many
Protestant hymnals, beginning “At the Cross her station keeping.” Thomas
a Kempis (1380-1471) of Holland and John Huss (1369-1415) of Bohemia,
made valuable contributions to mediaeval hymnody.
These Latin hymn writers have produced hymns which are characterized by
deep ardor, great love of Christ, and soul-stirring earnestness. The
Latin church hymnody is very wealthy indeed; more than 20,000 Latin
church hymns have been discovered. Of these Latin hymns we have
appropriated a large number of beautiful festival church hymns. Their
form is very plain. Without any comment the festival subject is
presented in a very plain and simple statement of the event in question.
The singer loses himself in his subject; there is nothing here of
self-assertion. Note such hymns as “A great and mighty wonder,” “All
praise to Thee, Eternal Lord,” “The strife is o’er, the battle done,”
“Christ, the Lord, is ris’n today,” “Jesus Christ is risen today,
Alleluia,” etc.
Mightily through the ages sound the hymns of penance and judgment;
perhaps too strong at times. Note that mighty and most powerful hymn,
Dies irae, dies illa. But the mediaeval hymnody is not without the
evangelical spirit; this is clearly seen in our hymn books, especially
in the Communion hymns. In spite of magic and abuse, it was nevertheless
in the Holy Communion that the true Christian of the Middle Ages came
closest to Christ. Note two mediaeval Communion hymns:
Lord Jesus Christ! To Thee we pray,
From us God’s wrath Thou turn’st away,
Thine agony and bitter death
Redeem us from eternal wrath.
This hymn comes from John Huss and was translated by Martin Luther. The
other Communion hymn is “Jesu dulcis memoria,” probably by St. Bernard
of Clairvaux:
Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest.
It is a very difficult task to translate these old Latin hymns; much is
lost by the translation. It is not an easy matter to construct a bridge
between the great glow of St. Bernard’s mysticism and the powerful, yet
cold faith of the seventeenth century. If “Jesu dulcis memoria” was not
written by St. Bernard, it must have been written by one of his devout
pupils. We are here at the very fountain-head of Christian poetry, so
closely related to the Song of Solomon, i. e., it presents the relation
of the faithful to Christ—the love of the bride to the bridegroom. From
this circle came the great hymn “O Sacred Head, now wounded,” translated
and perfected by Paul Gerhardt.
No wonder that the schools and cathedrals clung so tenaciously to the
old Latin hymnody. It exerted great influence. Too bad, indeed, that we
have permitted this Latin song to become extinct. Perhaps our taste in
things religious would not have declined so low, and religious song
would not have come to be despised so generally, had our good leaders
realized that there are better things than American jazz.
MEDIAEVAL GERMAN HYMNS
Along with this Latin-clerical church song there existed in the Germanic
mediaeval Church a religious popular poetry or congregational song.
Under the hierarchic autocracy of the Gregorian song it had gone so far
that the active participation of the congregation in public worship was
reduced to a joining only in the response Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy
upon us), repeated one hundred or more times at any one church service.
But in the sad tones of this Kyrie Eleison, this cry for compassion from
a people spiritually oppressed and enslaved, there emerged in the
Germanic mediaeval Church the first attempts at congregational song in
the vernacular. At the close of the ninth century they began to supply
the tune of the mechanically repeated Kyrie Eleison with religious
verses in the language of the people. Every verse of these songs ended
with the refrain Kyrie Eleison. Thus arose the first German church hymns
called Kirleison or Leisen, as they had grown out of and ended with the
Kyrie Eleison.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when significant religious
awakenings and the Crusades (1096-1273) stirred up great enthusiasm
among the people, these German hymns took on new life and gained great
favor among the people. These religious songs of the people were used
more and more freely both in public worship and at other religious and
secular festive occasions. Some of these mediaeval German hymns or
Leisen are: Also heilig ist der Tag; Mitten wir im Leben sind; Christ
ist erstanden; Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist. One of the best of
these Leisen is,
Christ ist erstanden
Von der Marter Banden,
Des sollen wir alle froh sein,
Christ will unser Trost sein,
Kyrie Eleison.
But even though the people sang these hymns in the church services, such
singing was merely tolerated and had no set place. These German hymns of
the people were different from the Latin hymns of the cloisters. They
possess a more simple, popular and hearty key-note, though their form
may be poor and their style rugged. But these hymns, with their singable
tunes, were greatly loved by the people, and so they lived and thrived
in the hearts of the common people during the deplorable times and
conditions of the mediaeval Church. The secular Minnesingers (thirteenth
century) and the Meistersingers (fourteenth century) exerted
considerable influence upon German hymnody, especially with respect to
poetic form and music. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
“Brethren of the Common Life” (Netherlands) and the significant
religious movements associated with John Wycliffe and John Huss gave to
hymnody in the vernacular a powerful revival and a purer evangelical
content. Desirable Latin hymns were translated and new hymns in the
vernacular were written. The Germans and the Bohemians possessed, before
1500, about five hundred church hymns in the vernacular. In the
fifteenth century the Bohemians sang these hymns in the regular church
services.
MEDIAEVAL SCANDINAVIAN HYMNODY
Because of the close connection which existed in mediaeval times between
Germanic countries and peoples,—a natural outcome of their racial
affinity,—it was quite natural that the movements of mediaeval hymnody
in Germany would become known among the people of the North. The Swedish
mediaeval Church possessed a hymnody both in Latin and in Swedish. Only
a very few of the Swedish mediaeval religious songs remain to-day. These
popular religious songs, like secular folk songs and ballads, were
transmitted not in writing but as a living tradition on the lips of the
people from generation to generation. Thus only very few of these old
Swedish religious songs have survived the century of the Reformation. By
way of example we may note the old mediaeval song, “The blessed day
which we behold”—this is found in all Swedish Lutheran hymn books. It
existed in the fourteenth century. In its present form it has been
greatly improved by the greatest of Swedish hymnologists, J. O. Wallin.
Ericus Olai is the only known Swedish hymn writer of mediaeval times.
One of his hymns, “The Rich Man,” a metrical paraphrase of the Gospel
lesson which deals with the rich man and Lazarus, Olaus Petri, the great
Swedish reformer, included in the first Swedish Lutheran hymn book. It
was also included in the Swedish Lutheran hymn book of 1695. An
interesting and valuable testimony concerning the fact that also in the
Swedish mediaeval Church the people were allowed to sing in public
worship, is found in the answer that King Gustavus I gave to the
complaint of the Dalecarlians, in 1527. Among other things, the king
says that “it is an old custom in our country, in our churches, to sing
in Swedish and praise God, and it is well that this is done in our own
language, which we understand, and not in Latin, which we do not
understand.”
THE SEQUENCES
The Sequences were religious liturgical songs, which developed from the
florid vocalizations upon the last syllable of the Hallelujah. At first
only a melody or tune with words, but later on it became an art form
both in music and in sacred poetry. Musically often of finer quality
than the hymn. The Sequences usually consisted of two verses, three
lines to each verse, with the same melody for each of the two verses.
The form seems to have originated at the convent of St. Gall in
Switzerland, about 875 A. D. During the later part of the mediaeval era
the Sequences became very popular, and the number of Sequences that were
sung in the Catholic Church reached nearly one thousand. The church
music decisions of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) operated very
strongly against the Sequences, and so they practically disappeared
about 1570. Only five Sequences were retained, namely, Victime paschali
laudes, Veni Sancte Spiritus, Lauda Sion salvatorem, Stabat Mater
dolorosa, and Dies Irae.
ST. GALL
We close our study of mediaeval hymnody with a story about St. Gall. St.
Gall is a very remarkable old monastery. Men of quite different minds
and dispositions got along very amicably under the Benedictine rule at
St. Gall. Among its one hundred monks there were in the ninth century
four monks whose names were well known throughout the Western Church,
namely, the learned Ratpert, the enthusiastic Notker, the highly gifted
and greatly admired artist Tutilo, and the unrivalled hand-printer of
books, Sintram, whose very beautiful handwriting was greatly admired
throughout Europe. Ratpert, a stern educator, never sparing the rod, and
not deeply interested in his devotional exercises—a great scholar.
Notker Balbulus (stammerer), the saint-like, ascetic tune-writer and
plant specialist, who had strange visions and lived in another world—a
dreamer. Then there was also the ingenious, humorous Tutilo. These three
monks were as different as three highly gifted persons could be, and yet
they were always as one soul. Ratpert respected Tutilo’s fine
scholarship; at night they were often found with Notker Balbulus in the
writing-room, comparing and improving the works that Sintram was about
to copy. Notker who wrote many fine hymn tunes, wanted them sung by
Tutilo who was a good singer and clever performer upon several musical
instruments. Tutilo wrote several excellent hymn tunes, and he also
produced several noble hymns of which the most popular are Hodie
cantandus, Viri Galilei, and Gaudete et cantate.
Notker’s genuine affection for Tutilo was not disturbed by Tutilo’s
good-natured submission to unreasonable monastic regulations, which
Notker regarded as symbolically significant. The Benedictine regulations
were meant for the monasteries of southern Italy, and did not suit the
convent of St. Gall very well. A midday nap was one of the Benedictine
regulations, and so the monks of St. Gall had to retire and sleep two or
three hours at midday every day. The Benedictine rule prescribed a diet
of fish, fruit and vegetables—the usual diet of southern Italy. But fish
and fruit were difficult to secure at St. Gall; meat, which was
plentiful, was forbidden. And so the diet of St. Gall consisted mainly
of pulse and pap. Notker who was the guardian of the discipline of the
monastery, never had an occasion to bring up any reproach against
Tutilo. Tutilo observed the midday nap, and flavoured with merriment the
monotonous diet which maintained his splendid mortal clay.